For 2000, the majority of the USA perpetrators of child abuse were women (59.9%), and men accounted for 40.1 percent of perpetrators.
Child Maltreatment 2000 -
Chapter 4: Perpetrators
Source: USA Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Child Maltreatment 2000
Perpetrators of child maltreatment are the persons responsible for a child's well-being, such as the parents or caretakers, who have abused or neglected the child. "Caretakers" typically include those persons who are responsible for the supervision of a child e.g. grandparents, babysitters, and daycare workers.
Based on case-specific data, perpetrators are described from two perspectives.1 The first uses the perpetrator as the unit of analysis; the second considers the maltreated child as the unit of analysis.
CHARACTERISTICS OF PERPETRATORS
For 2000, the majority of perpetrators were women (59.9%), and men accounted for 40.1 percent of perpetrators.2 Female perpetrators were typically younger than male perpetrators. Of female perpetrators, 41.9 percent were less than 30 years of age compared to 31.6 percent of male perpetrators (figure 4-1). The median age of perpetrators for men was 34 years; the median age for women was 31 years."Parents" accounted for 78.8 percent of perpetrators. "Other relatives" accounted for 8.5 percent of perpetrators.3
CHARACTERISTICS OF VICTIMS IN RELATION TO THEIR PERPETRATORS
In order to establish whether perpetrators act alone or in concert with others, the data were examined from the perspective of the victim. In these analyses new categories of relationship were constructed-namely, "Mother Only," "Father Only," "Both Parents," and other relationship combinations.4A "Mother Only" was reported as the perpetrator for 40.0 percent of child victims (figure 4-2). A "Father Only" accounted for 16.6 percent of victims, and "Both Parents" accounted for 18.7 percent. At least one parent was the perpetrator for 83.3 percent of victims. These percentages were similar to those in 1999.
A "Mother Only" was most commonly found to be responsible for neglect (46.9% of victims) and for physical abuse (32.1% of victims).5 "Father Only" and "Other Relatives" were responsible for 21.5 percent and 19.4 percent of sexual abuse victims, respectively. "Other" perpetrators were responsible for 24.9 percent of sexual abuse victims (figure 4-3).
Almost 90 percent (89.4%) of neglect victims and 81.5 percent of physical abuse victims-but only 45.3 percent of sexual abuse victims-were abused by their parents.
SUPPLEMENTARY TABLES
The following pages contain the tables referenced in Chapter 4. Unless otherwise explained, a blank indicates that the State did not submit useable data and a number in bold indicates either a total or an estimate.
Chapter Four: Figures and Tables
Table 4-1 Age and Sex of Perpetrators, 2000
| Age | Male (median age = 34.0) | Female (median age = 31.0) | Total (median age = 32.0) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | % | N | % | N | % | |
| <20 | 19,413 | 6.6 | 20,458 | 4.7 | 39,871 | 5.5 |
| 20-29 | 73,283 | 25.0 | 162,969 | 37.2 | 236,252 | 32.3 |
| 30-39 | 117,713 | 40.2 | 181,293 | 41.4 | 299,006 | 40.9 |
| 40-49 | 61,095 | 20.9 | 56,837 | 13.0 | 117,932 | 16.1 |
| >49 | 21,201 | 7.2 | 16,453 | 3.8 | 37,654 | 5.2 |
| Total | 292,705 | 40.1 | 438,010 | 59.9 | 730,715 | 100.0 |
- Based on data from 33 States: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Percentages are based on a total count of 730,715 perpetrators from reports in which the perpetrator's age and sex were provided. A perpetrator is counted for each report and each child with whom he or she is associated.
- This table lists age groups, in the first column, for the adult perpetrators. These age groups are less than 20, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, and older than 49. The next two columns break the perpetrators down into males and females, respectively. Each of these columns first lists the number of perpetrators particular to the specified gender and age and then the percentage of perpetrators, within the given gender, that fall within the given age boundaries. The last column totals the number of perpetrators for each age group and gives a percentage of those in each. The median age of male perpetrators is 34 while the median age of female perpetrators is 31. The median age of all perpetrators is 32 years old.
Table 4-2 Perpetrator Relationship to Victim, 2000
| State | Par- ent(s) | Other Rela- tive(s) | Fos- ter Par- ent(s) | Resi- den- tial Faci- lity Staff | Child Day Care Provi- der(s) | Un- mar- ried Part- ner of Pa- rent | Other | Un- known | Total Per- pe- tra- tors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ala- bama | |||||||||
| Alaska | |||||||||
| Ari- zona | 8,339 | 410 | 26 | 31 | 1 | 279 | 43 | 2 | 9,131 |
| Arkan- sas | 6,642 | 1,054 | 15 | 45 | 58 | 48 | 2,334 | 10,196 | |
| Cali- for- nia | |||||||||
| Colo- rado | |||||||||
| Con- nec- ticut | 17,665 | 812 | 429 | 162 | 1,203 | 725 | 20 | 21,016 | |
| Dela- ware | |||||||||
| Dis- trict of Colum- bia | |||||||||
| Florida | 24,756 | 2,210 | 184 | 31 | 452 | 4,395 | 157 | 32,185 | |
| Geor- gia | |||||||||
| Hawaii | 3,925 | 307 | 91 | 6 | 341 | 68 | 4,738 | ||
| Idaho | |||||||||
| Illinois | 39,260 | 8,018 | 492 | 87 | 1,706 | 3,965 | 2,684 | 307 | 56,519 |
| In- diana | 21,669 | 2,369 | 83 | 34 | 48 | 1,433 | 2,882 | 1,583 | 30,101 |
| Iowa | 10,270 | 693 | 44 | 73 | 754 | 522 | 607 | 765 | 13,728 |
| Kan- sas | 7,302 | 865 | 53 | 2,357 | 10,577 | ||||
| Ken- tucky | 18,746 | 1,226 | 86 | 54 | 1,196 | 764 | 553 | 22,625 | |
| Louis- iana | 9,755 | 1,472 | 50 | 80 | 45 | 29 | 910 | 659 | 13,000 |
| Maine | 6,138 | 520 | 10 | 6 | 12 | 448 | 71 | 909 | 8,114 |
| Mary- land | |||||||||
| Massa- chu- setts | 35,591 | 1,678 | 175 | 82 | 94 | 2,924 | 1,170 | 81 | 41,795 |
| Michi- gan | 31,020 | 1,157 | 134 | 3 | 13 | 2,385 | 34,712 | ||
| Minne- sota | 11,832 | 831 | 34 | 11 | 93 | 835 | 315 | 1,258 | 15,209 |
| Missis- sippi | |||||||||
| Mis- souri | 5,916 | 717 | 40 | 141 | 42 | 621 | 770 | 429 | 8,676 |
| Mon- tana | |||||||||
| Ne- braska | 3,392 | 254 | 4 | 1,047 | 4,697 | ||||
| Ne- vada | |||||||||
| New Hamp- shire | |||||||||
| New Jersey | 7,857 | 536 | 107 | 169 | 137 | 420 | 164 | 237 | 9,627 |
| New Mexico | 7,241 | 764 | 1 | 307 | 258 | 6 | 8,577 | ||
| New York | 88,949 | 5,137 | 753 | 90 | 940 | 2,081 | 89 | 98,039 | |
| North Caro- lina | |||||||||
| North Dakota | |||||||||
| Ohio | |||||||||
| Okla- homa | 13,207 | 667 | 229 | 175 | 15 | 659 | 201 | 15,153 | |
| Ore- gon | |||||||||
| Penn- syl- vania | 3,055 | 681 | 66 | 53 | 666 | 462 | 560 | 1 | 5,544 |
| Rhode Island | 3,386 | 141 | 37 | 50 | 51 | 444 | 30 | 4,139 | |
| South Caro- lina | |||||||||
| South Da- kota | |||||||||
| Ten- nes- see | |||||||||
| Texas | 45,892 | 6,648 | 91 | 15 | 352 | 3,171 | 2,069 | 163 | 58,401 |
| Utah | 7,557 | 1,200 | 25 | 5 | 35 | 771 | 1,714 | 200 | 11,507 |
| Ver- mont | 850 | 150 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 390 | 42 | 1,450 | |
| Vir- ginia | |||||||||
| Was- hing- ton | 7,744 | 411 | 257 | 42 | 468 | 195 | 9,117 | ||
| West Vir- ginia | |||||||||
| Wis- consin | |||||||||
| Wyo- ming | 1,194 | 184 | 6 | 2 | 50 | 166 | 7 | 1,609 | |
| Total | 449,150 | 40,701 | 3,689 | 1,134 | 6,024 | 18,701 | 27,083 | 13,700 | 560,182 |
| % | 80.2 | 7.3 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 3.3 | 4.8 | 2.4 | 100 |
| Num- ber Re- por- ting | 28 | 27 | 27 | 21 | 24 | 19 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
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